Independent music isn't on the margins any more: It makes up 40 percent of the industry.

This week on the podcast, Kevin Breuner joins host Dmitri Vietze to talk about how Independent self empowered artists are changing the game. Kevin knows independent music: He's VP of Marketing at CD Baby, host of the DIY Musician Podcast (going strong at 241 episodes!), and an indie musician himself.

The rise of the DIY Musician means that mainstream artists are having to work harder to maintention the same attention level. Pre-streaming, labels used to be genre specific—radio too—and other artists were viewed as competition. Now other artists are partners because there are a ton of opportunities to cross promote and work together to grow their collective fan bases. There are fewer gatekeepers now and the floodgates are open, and success is coming from surprising places so it's the perfect time to experiment as an independent artist.

CD Baby has long been a prime mover in a number of the tech-driven seismic shifts in the music biz we've been tracking: Broken Gates, Self-Driving Artists, Many Paths to Success, the list goes on. We're grateful that they signed on early as a Supernova Sponsor of the Music Tectonics Conference where we'll explore these shifts and more. Kevin will be there, along with CEO Tracy Maddux and SVP Christine Barnum. Connect with them in LA!

The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Visit MusicTectonics.com to learn more, and find us on twitter and facebook. What do you think? Connect with Dmitri Vietze on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.